Yesterday I asked how many of you intend to move to a new city within 6 months. The results are in:
- ~5,000 readers answered (they’re still coming in… we crunched the numbers on ~3,800 replies)
- 33.3% of the respondents said yes, they intend to move within 6 months. 66.7% said no.
- Top cities people are moving from: NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago.
- Top cities people are moving to: Austin, Chicago, and LA.
- Some of the most popular intercity moves: NYC to LA, San Francisco to Austin, NYC to Austin, NYC to Denver, LA to Austin.
- Texans: Get ready for an influx of Californians and New Yorkers.
Your plans gave me an idea: I’m starting a moving company. Be on the lookout for marketing emails soon.
Here are a few comments from the survey (edited for brevity).
Who’s moving
Bob, moving from Chicago to Naperville, Illinois: “F*ck quarantine while in a 1,200 sq ft apartment. Need a house and a yard now.”
Chad, moving from Nova Scotia back to an RV: “We’ve lived in a 40ft RV for the last 2 years, splitting time between Canada and the US with 2 adults, 2 children and a dog. COVID forced us back into our home for 3 months, but we’ve abandoned that now and moved back into the trailer with million-dollar views overlooking the ocean in Nova Scotia for $800/month.”
Eli, moving from San Francisco to Berkeley, California: “I’ve always dreamed of living alone but that’s not an option living in San Francisco. Instead, I’ve spent the past 6 years living with 5 people. Now that prices are dropping, I found a beautiful one bedroom in Berkeley. I’ve always loved living in a city but since being locked down, my FOMO has declined as fast as rental prices.”
Cindy, moved from Chicago to New Orleans: She left the Chicago area “due to astronomically high taxes, poor services, cost of living and tired of winters. In New Orleans I own two properties, a condo I rent full-time and my personal home… Why New Orleans? The creative energy, food, music and the cost of living.”
Who’s staying put
Emily, staying in Richmond, Virginia: “I already live in an affordable, mid-size city. With even more on the horizon post-COVID-19, I think Richmond is just starting to hit its prime.”
Steve, staying in NYC: “True New Yorkers always stick around to brave whatever comes their way. 9/11, Pandemics, roaches/rats/hipsters… Everything passes in time.”
Craig, staying in Austin: “There’s no better place to be right now than Austin. I suspect we’ll be having a ton of new Texans arriving shortly.”
We’ll do another survey next week. That was fun.
Thanks to everyone who answered. You can find the entire dataset here.
–Sam, Founder & CEO of The Hustle